Duterte says he will 'wipe out' Parojinog clan of Ozamiz City

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday threatened to "wipe out from the earth" the Parojinog family, a political clan in Ozamiz allegedly linked to illegal drugs trade.

Duterte warned mayors he would not hesitate to kill them if they are involved in illegal drugs. He then singled out the Parojinogs, whom he said had ordered the killing of police officers who had resisted their illegal activities.    

"If you are an evil mayor or councilor and you think of disgusting things, or even ten times more disgusting than that, I can do it better 50 times than you can. Do not intimidate me. I will strangle you if I lose my patience, you son of a b****," the president said during the groundbreaking of an airport modernization project in Ozamiz. 

"To the Parojinogs, I will wipe you from the face of the earth," he added. 

Last year, anti-narcotics police raided the compound of the political clan, resulting in the death of then Ozamiz City Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Sr., his wife Susan, his brother Board Member Octavio Parojinog Jr., sister Mona and 12 others.

READ: Ozamiz mayor, 14 others killed in police raids | Parojinogs' lawyer says the raid was a 'massacre'

Duterte said the raid was part of the government's crackdown on illegal drugs, one of his campaign promises that helped him achieve a landslide victory in 2016. 

The Ozamiz raid was plotted by Police Superintendent Jovie Espenido, who was also the police chief of Albuera, Letye when its mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. was nabbed and subsequently killed inside his jail cell in November 2016.

Espenido was recently assigned to the Eastern Visayas but Duterte on Wednesday decided to send him back to Ozamiz City to obliterate the Parojinog clan. 

ABS-CBN News and The Daily Tribune reported in September that Espenido announced he will run for mayor of the city in the 2019 polls. Had he filed his certificate of candidacy before the Commission on Elections, he would have been deemed resigned from the police force.

RELATED: DOJ indicts Espenido over bloody June 2017 Ozamiz raid

While delivering his speech, the president called Philippine National Police chief Director General Oscar Albayalde to instruct him to reassign Espenido to the city. 

"I am here at the Ozamiz airport. They said they want him (Espenido) back," Duterte said, drawing cheers from the audience. 

"Ipaubos ko itong, ang order ko kay Espinido, ubusin niya ang putanginang angkan ni mayor (My order is for him to wipe out that son of a b**** family of the mayor)," he added.

RELATED: Ozamiz City judge handling Parojinog cases shot dead

The president also threatened to slaughter policemen who are in cahoots with political clans involved in illegal drugs.

The president's speech comes a day after he announced that he would form a "death squad" to go against the New People's Army's Special Partisan Unit, also called "sparrow" units.

He said the death squad, which will be composed of civilians, will go after idlers and "potential NPAs".